Sight-Sing

Take charge of your learning

Welcome to Sight-Sing: a mobile App that helps you learn to sight-sing at your own pace, and without needing the help of a tutor or pianist.

Why an App?

There are lots of books out there with well-paced examples and lots of explanation, but a printed book can’t tell you what the notes *sound* like. For that you have to find a pianist or music teacher who can check your progress, or maybe go to a website and download sound clips. Whereas…

This app plays the notes!

You can move the notes up and down to suit your voice, and practice in different keys.

You can choose Bass, Tenor or Treble clefs

There are two extra chapters for common Bass progressions.

Works on Tablets or Phones - put the app in your pocket and check out a few exercises anytime, anywhere!

How the tunes are structured

Notes are introduced in simple groups of three or four, and later combined into more complex melodies. Work at your own pace, revising early chapters when you need to, or looking for chapters that focus on particular combinations.

How does it work

This App uses the Solfa system because it allows you to read in any key, and works well for singers. Various similar methods have been used around the world with great success. The general idea is to sight read using landmarks (keynote, So, or La) rather than by interval (jump a perfect 4th, 5th, major 2nd etc). This has a couple of major advantages - particularly that getting one note wrong does not mean that you are lost for the rest of the phrase! You can just get back on track the next landmark note. Singers who use this system also tend to sing more in tune. Click here for examples.

What it doesn’t do

This app is not a random tune generator! The examples are carefully graded to introduce concepts and common note groups in a sensible order. If you want extra “random note” practice in a particular chapter, you can sing the examples backwards, or try singing every other note.

This app focuses just on pitch without getting into rhythm. Recent research suggests that rhythm is processed in a slightly different area of the brain, and it seems that pitch and rhythm might best be studied seperately. Check out our free Woodchuck Rhythm app and website for more on why.